New York’s New Gateway: The Overhaul of John F. Kennedy International Airport

On the cusp of the 70th anniversary of the originally named New York Airport’s opening in Queens, N.Y., a blue-ribbon panel in 2017 released a report to the governor of New York: The facility, once popularly known as Idlewild Airport, needed a comprehensive master plan and a total transformation. In the seven years since, builders at John F. Kennedy International Airport have been anything but idle, and the speed at which that $19-billion transformation of the roads and terminals is occurring could be called wild.

“The evolution of JFK’s terminal buildings has been a history of separate projects with private airlines or private terminal operators designing and building individual terminals … with no overall master plan to guide development. As a result, today’s Airport is fragmented,” according to the report, “A Vision Plan for John F. Kennedy International Airport.” It continued: “All future terminal expansion and redevelopment projects should be planned with a focus on interconnection with other terminals to enable JFK to grow over time into an integrated airport experience.”

Despite the pandemic, that growth has been swift. A $400-million expansion of Terminal 8 and a $1.5-billion expansion of Terminal 4, anchored by American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, respectively, are complete. The $9.5-billion New Terminal One (NTO)—the largest private-public partnership in the country—reached a milestone this spring with the topping out of the headhouse for the 2.6-million-sq-ft facility. Gates at NTO and in a $4.2-billion project to upgrade Terminal 6 are scheduled to open by 2026, and a $1.2-billion project to revamp the airport’s road network and build a new ground transportation center is expected to finish in 2027, all within 10 years of the vision plan’s release…